Leviticus 15:16

16 "'If a man has a seminal emission, he is to bathe his entire body in water; he will be unclean until evening.

Leviticus 15:16 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 15:16

And if any man's seed of copulation go out from him
Not in lawful cohabitation, nor voluntarily, but involuntarily, as Aben Ezra observes; not through any disorder, which came by an accident, or in any criminal way, but through a dream, or any lustful imagination; what is commonly called nocturnal pollution ^F3; then he shall wash all his flesh in water, and be unclean until the
even;
and so the Egyptian priests, when it happened that they were defiled by a dream, they immediately purified themselves in a laver ^F4 so the Jewish priests did when the like happened to them asleep in the temple ^F5; see ( Deuteronomy 23:10 Deuteronomy 23:11 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F3 "----& noctem flumine purgas." Pers. Satyr. 2.
F4 Chaeremon. apud Porphyr. de Abstinentia, l. 4. c. 7.
F5 Misn. Tamid. c. 1. sect. 1.

Leviticus 15:16 In-Context

14 On the eighth day, he is to take for himself two doves or two young pigeons, come before ADONAI to the entrance of the tent of meeting and give them to the cohen.

15 The cohen is to offer them, the one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering; thus the cohen will make atonement for him on account of his discharge before ADONAI.

16 "'If a man has a seminal emission, he is to bathe his entire body in water; he will be unclean until evening.

17 Any clothing or leather on which there is any semen is to be washed with water; it will be unclean until evening.

18 If a man goes to bed with a woman and has sexual relations, both are to bathe themselves in water; they will be unclean until evening.